I wish I could reach out and give you a big hug, reassure you that it’s going to be okay. You are loved. There are people in the world who care about you, people who need you even. I’m sure platitudes don’t help, but I promise you there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not just another train coming down the tracks. Hang in there.

Often the things that are really worth doing are going to be hard. Churches are a real mixed bag, but I know there are some good ones out there. That’s your family, your real one, the one you are adopted into. Sometimes other Christians can be your best resource. If I were closer I would hook you up in minute. Reach out to someone and if the first try doesn’t work, do it again. You are loved and cherished, even when it doesn’t feel like it.

If you ever read the book, then the movie will not do it justice for you, but the opening scene in the 1998 version of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, where Liam Neeson takes the role of Valjean, has a nameless old woman stumble onto Valjean trying to sleep on a bench in the village square. She pokes him with her walking stick as if to prod him along. But then the brief exchange they share always haunts me.

It’s not one of the highlighted scenes in the story at all. In fact it is so quick and subtle as to be most unmemorable. But here is what they say…